It appears that there are now multiple reasons for not eating at night. Women have known for a long time that it's better to eat something "bad" that you want while there's time to start burning it off. Resisting nighttime snacking is also important because eating carbs close to bed makes some people fall asleep hard, and then wake up -- usually hungry -- several hours later. Dairy before bed apparently can contribute to snoring!

But now we're seeing signs that our ancestors ate their last big meal before the sun set, and then did not eat until 16 hours later. And that may have to do with why they were mostly a slender people. Simply put, your liver may need to rest. And allowing it to rest during your "recharge" hours may make it burn calories more efficiently at other times.

I know several people who have been slowly but steadily losing weight on this system. The hardest part for me is that I literally forget to eat until later in the evening. Or I don't get around to breakfast, so I eat lunch at 3 pm, and there you are -- the day is pushed back.

But since the sun doesn't set until after 8 pm, as long as I don't eat breakfast until noon, that might still work! I've been trying to stop anything other than water or coconut water after 7 pm, so this is just another step in a better direction.

Advantages? You get to eat meals with higher fat and calories IF you then don't eat anything from 6 at night until 9 the next morning. I did watch a woman at work lost 25 pounds by not eating after 5 pm, and having one big salad a day as her only required food -- otherwise she just varied healthy choices as her food selections. That definitely worked for her.

Wouldn't it be incredible if it could work for most of us, or even all of us? Has this been the missing explanation of why meat and potatoes did not cause most people to get fat -- not just work, but real rest of the entire system?

PS -- magnesium supplements help when I'm having sugar or chocolate cravings. I really like ones that have more than one form of magnesium in them, like Vital Nutrients Triple Mag 250 mg. It contains oxide, dimagnesium malate and glycinate forms of magnesium. Magnesium depletion is almost always at the root of my cravings. Water soluble, and we burn it when stressed -- make sense?

This article is based on a one-month “test diet change” plan I concocted for a friend back in January 2011 and posted at www.blog.bookviewcafe.com. Here’s a tweaked version for my personal blog readers.

How food, diet, and dieting affected my writing and my life. And maybe effects yours…

All right. You‘ve thought about my proposal made in my earlier post called “Testing the Waters,” and you have decided you’ll give at least a month of being gluten-free a try. Reasons to give this a chance include the following things.

* Other diets have never worked, or lasted
* Exercise alone has not worked, or stopped working
* Giving up everything you enjoy didn’t work
* Your stomach and/or lower GI tract hurts a lot, and you haven’t been able to figure out what’s causing it.
* You are overweight, or underweight, and would like to be closer to a normal weight.
* You show signs of blood sugar fluctuation or diabetes, or autoimmune diseases — arthritis, including rheumatoid arthritis, persistent Lyme disease, brain fog, fibromyalgia, pain in and gurgling from the GI tract, IBS, colitis, insomnia, brain fog, ADD, memory loss, persistent muscle ache, IQ drop, persistent hormonal flares – things that are NOT NECESSARILY JUST AGING.
* You are in a category some scientists think may trigger recessive genes controlling gluten intolerance in adults (See Epigenetics):

1) You have been, or continue to be in a high stress situation.
2) You have ever been in a serious accident, and your weight/joint/brain fog issues really started during or after that point.
3) You have ever been seriously ill, and your weight/joint/brain fog issues really started during or after that point.

Are you still with me? As you can see, the potential here runs from small but significant problems all the way to catastrophic problems. And we’re going to investigate whether gluten might be contributing to your problem.
( Caveats, specifics and good news )
Not ready to join the game? That’s okay. Keep thinking about it, and keep reading. I’ll be back soon with “What can you eat? What can you not eat? You can eat the world!”

Let the gluten go!

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Katharine Eliska Kimbriel is currently working on a new Alfreda book, a contemporary fantasy series, and a Nuala short story.

If the computer gremlins have been kind, the third installment of my series "Let the Gluten Go" should be up over at Book View Cafe's blog. The subtitle of the series is, "How food, diet, and dieting affected my writing and my life. And maybe effects yours..." Because for whatever, as yet unknown reason, my brain and creativity have been out to lunch since I spiraled down into undetected third stage Lyme disease. Until I completely stopped gluten. The change has been remarkable.

I've gone from trapped in severe insomnia, fatigue, ADD and short term memory loss to thinking, and writing again. And sleeping, incidentally, for you insomniacs out there. This has happened in as little as eight weeks. So -- I decided that was too important to keep to myself, and have designed a "cliff notes" version of going gluten-free for a month.

If you'd like to check it out, the first installment is here, and the second over here. If you've wanted a change in your life, for any reason? This might be an interesting place to start!